Dome
design
safe for
events
Meditating on
women in reggae
SIHLE MTHEMBU
THE DISTINCT sound of
closely-knit electronic guitar
riffs, the linear strumming of
a drum still in the early stages
of its life and vocals wailing
and chanting about peace and
unity.
In an old car repair shop
that has been converted into a
studio on the outskirts of Jacobs, Durban, The Meditators
are discreetly plucking away
at their craft.
Durban’s seminal, sevenpiece roots reggae collective
are preparing for a one-of-a
kind celebration of Bob Marley Day on February 10 – with
a twist. This year the celebration is focused on celebrating
women in reggae.
Speaking about the idea behind the festival to be held at
uShaka Marine World, lead
vocalist and band founder
Shante Bekwa says that the
event is aimed at merging people from diverse social backgrounds under the banner of
an eclectic sound.
“In South Africa there are a
lot of platforms for music but
unfortunately there are not
many platforms for reggae,”
he says. “What we want to do
with this festival and with our
music is increase the visibility
of the genre.” And indeed they
are doing just that. Already in
its fifth year, the celebration
has become known as a meeting point for reggae musicians
not only from South Africa but
the wider Diaspora. As part of

this year’s women in reggae
line-up, Nkulee Dube who is
one of Lucky Dube’s children,
will be among the headline
acts along with The Meditators.
Commenting on why its important to give female musicians a platform, drummer
Bunny Mkhize notes that it’s
important to have a diversity
of voices if a musical art form
is going to survive and that
reggae as an art form needs to
spread its lineage.
“Reggae is not just a masculine music or a music just
for men,” he says. “It’s an art
form that is diverse and by
bringing in the likes of awardwinning
musicians
like
Nkulee Dube for this festival
we are showcasing that diversity.”
One of the band’s major
concerns is that people have
misunderstood the message of
the music and that far too
often the genre is associated
with negative stereotypes.
Bekwa says that the main
priority of reggae is to help
build an awareness of the social issues that affect the daily
lives of South Africa.
“Music like this should be
used to build awareness and
not just to dance and booze
aimlessly,” he says. “There are
many negative stereotypes
about what we do, but the important thing is that when people see us perform they realise
that those are unfounded and
they are able to connect with
what we do.”

ARTHI SANPATH
HE POTENTIAL hazards of staging an outdoor function are
enough to put many
people off the idea.
Heavy winds, an impending
storm or lightning make such
events dicey. This was clearly
seen in August last year, when
six people, including a home affairs official, were seriously injured when a marquee collapsed at the funeral of seven
schoolchildren who were killed
in a road accident in Bulwer.
But a new design on the
South African market – the
MegaDome – might be the type
of structure needed on the
events market.
Events organiser Wally
Pelser, of Durban, said the

T

MegaDome – a structure, similar to that of a marquee, but
more technical – would reduce
the worry of rain, fire and even
lightning strikes.
“It is a dome, held together
with steel poles and covered
with a special material, and all
are locally made.”
After finding few venues in
Durban that catered for large
numbers of people (more than
300), and needing an outside
venue that was better than
marquees, Pelser began researching and found that the
domes were already being used
in America for concerts.
“However, to import the materials here was too costly, so I
decided to undertake the manufacture of all the parts of the
dome locally.”
The MegaDome is fully mo-

REDUCES WORRY: Wally Pelser, of TVG Eduventures, said the MegaDome structure would help reduce the worry of
flooding, lightning strikes and fires at major outdoor events.
PICTURES: DOCTOR NGCOBO
bile, takes about two days to
construct by trained staff, allows for uninterrupted space
with no centre poles, can have
light and images projected on
to the “walls”, can withstand
bad weather, and the triangular
metal cage-like structure is safe
during lightning, according to
Faraday’s principle.
As the dome is an enclosed
hollow shell made of electrically conductive material, the
charges will move around and
finally be conducted to the
ground.
“This structural design is
the strongest known structure
to man, and a scientific equation is used to put the structure
together,” Pelser said.
The largest dome seats up to
700 people at round tables, and
1 000 people in rows.

My ex is just a vulture,
says Gina Lollobrigida
HANNAH ROBERTS
GINA Lollobrigida pledged
yesterday to have her former
fiancé jailed for the “fake”
marriage he is said to have
orchestrated.
In an exclusive interview
the legendary actress described
Spaniard Javier Rigua as a
“vulture” out to get his hands
on her £35 million (R495m)
fortune.
Lollobrigida, 85, made headlines this week after it emerged
she had complained to Italian
police that Rigua, 51, had used

fake documents to carry out a
wedding ceremony “by proxy”.
He has insisted the marriage
was completely bona fide.
The actress once dubbed
“the most beautiful woman in
the world” claimed Rigua was
waiting for her “to die”. She
said: “He is not guilty of just
one fraud but of many. He is
not a nice person. He will pay
for what he has done.
“He invented a false document to carry out this wedding
and now he will pay. I will not
rest until he has been brought
to justice. He is nothing but a

AT WAR: Spanish
businessman Javier Rigau
claims his wedding to
Hollywood legend Gina
Lollobrigida is legitimate.
vulture, circling me, sniffing
my blood. He married me and
was waiting for me to die so he
could inherit my possessions.”

COOL INTERIOR: The
domes can be
decorated to suit the
event. The largest dome
seats up to 700 people at
round tables, and 1 000
people in rows.
The smaller domes are used
largely for exhibitions.
“It will be very useful for official functions – there will be
no concerns about having func-

tions in bad weather.”
Pelser said municipalities
and conference organisers had
shown an interest in the new
structures. Officials from local

authorities, on inspecting one
of the structures on the
grounds of the Durban Light
Infantry, said it would be useful
for events in rural areas.

Lollobrigida revealed that
she went to the police with her
manager after inviting Rigua to
Rome to discuss the situation.
She said: “I didn’t go into
the full details otherwise he
would never have flown over
from Spain. I refused to meet
him when he arrived and
instead my manager went to a
police station with him.
“The matter is now an international investigation and I
want justice,” she said.
In her statement to Italian
police, Lollobrigida said her
former boyfriend had carried
out the 2010 fake ceremony in a
Barcelona register office with a
woman named Teresa standing
in for her. She said he was able
to carry out the wedding because he had obtained the legal
right to act on her behalf. However, she claims she was tricked

because all the documents were
in Spanish.
Lollobrigida said: “I found
all this out completely by
chance. To think when I first
met him I thought he was polite
and educated, I even defended
him from gossips, but now I see
that all his good manners were
simply superficial.
“He would escort me to parties and we would be seen at all
sorts of events together. At the
time I was very depressed as I
had been the victim of two
other frauds, so it wasn’t a very
pleasant time for me. Javier
helped cheer me up and I eventually decided to marry him.
“But then I travelled to New
York to see some friends and
after talking with them I
changed my mind and told him
I had decided that I didn’t want
to get married anymore.

“But he obviously went
ahead with it.”
The mystery deepened further last night after Rigau’s
lawyers disputed her claims
Teresa Bueyes said it was
“impossible” the actress did
not realise she was married to
the Spaniard and claimed Lollobrigida had travelled to
Barcelona in August 2010 to
sign a legal document agreeing
to marry Rigau by proxy,
adding that it was signed in
front of a notary.
She said the marriage, celebrated without the actress present on November 29, 2010, was
“completely legitimate” and
“took place with the full knowledge of both participants”.
She also insisted that Rigau
had signed a document rejecting any inheritance from her
on her death. – Daily Mail

Tearful starlet shaves head to save image
A JAPANESE starlet who shaved her
head and issued a tearful YouTube
apology after spending the night with
a man was scrambling to redeem the
girl-next-door image of all-female
group AKB48.
Pictures of the roughly-shorn
head of Minami Minegishi, 20, were
emblazoned on national newspapers
and Japan’s Twitter scene was abuzz
yesterday over news that the pop
princess had broken the band’s cardinal rule: no dating.
A sobbing Minegishi told fans she
had decided to shave her head as an
act of contrition after a popular
weekly magazine published claims of
a night of passion with a 19-year-old
boy band member.
“I don’t believe just doing this
means I can be forgiven for what I did,

but the first thing I thought was that
I don’t want to quit AKB48,” she says
in the video, which had been viewed
on YouTube more than three million
times.
Minegishi, who had long, silky
hair at the time, was snapped leaving
the flat of Alan Shirahama, a dancer
in an off-shoot of the popular boy
band Exile.
Tabloid magazine Shukan Bunshun published its article on Thursday, and hours later Minegishi was
pleading to be allowed to remain with
AKB48, one of the world’s most successful acts by revenue.
The tryst was “thoughtless and immature” she told fans. “If it is possible, I wish from the bottom of my
heart to stay in the band. Everything
I did is my fault, I am so sorry.”

CLEAN SLATE? Pop star Minami
Minegishi, 20, shaved her head
after a night of passion with a boy
band member, which broke the
band’s no dating rule.
AKB48, a 90-strong pool of girls in
their teens and early 20s, is a moneyprinting juggernaut that makes much
of the accessibility, and the implied
availability, of its idols. Fans have op-

portunities to meet their favourites,
who are rotated in and out of the public eye, according to popularity.
In return for their chance to grace
television screens, subway adverts
and the covers of Japan’s countless
celebrity magazines, members of the
collective must adhere to strict rules.
They are allowed to have “onesided romantic feelings” for a boy, but
can never progress beyond hinting at
their crush – and must never disabuse
their male fans that they might one
day be with their fantasy woman.
In June last year, another AKB48
member, Rino Sashihara, 20, made a
pained apology after a magazine article revealed her free-wheeling
history with a boy. She was demoted
to a regional sub-group as a punishment. – Sapa-AFP

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GREAT SOUNDS: The Meditators, led by vocalist Shante
Bekwa, performed at the recent Spogweni Music Festival
held at By-The-Way Country Pub, inland from Ballito.
PICTURE: SHELLEY KJONSTAD